One of the key factors to saving money on your van insurance is actually getting the right van for the job in the first place. Many companies and individuals simply do not do enough research into what their businesses need from their commercial vehicle fleet and throw huge wads of money at vans that, for their collection and delivery needs at least, do not do the investment justice.
In the main, this is where the belief that ‘bigger is better‘ overrides any commercially derived decision when deciding on such an investment. Either that or businesses that have been established a while with similar customer bases buy like-for-like before assessing whether either their or their customers’ businesses have changed in a manner that would allow for smaller vans to otherwise suffice.
And I do not just refer to the outlay for the fleet in the first instance. There is the ongoing cost of fuel and van insurance which continually demand more from your budget than smaller capacity vans, both in volume for carriage and payload and the engines under the hood.
This is never more true than in the world of distribution, especially where companies have been drawn into the automotive sector because of the proficiency in supplying in other areas. A prime example is when I used to work in the fastener and associated product industry and we were very good at we did.
So much so that, where we were supplying large items such as cable tray for electrical enclosures or stanchions for stair lifts we were asked to supply the smaller, bespoke components that were designed specifically for the applications and were difficult to get hold of in small volumes at reasonable prices and lead times in the UK.
Not to go into too much detail as this is not business blog but about finding cheap van insurance, but, because of how lucrative supplying these smaller components were our business dynamic shifted. Not so much a conscious decision but, within any industry where you supply exceptional service, you soon attract a reputation, which is your marketing dealt with, if nothing else – you can’t beat recommendation as a tool to promote your service or product.
One aspect of our business that never changed, even long after the large components had been ditched and we were all about small, special screws, was the fleet of vans. We still kept buying the ‘good old Transit‘ and, nine times out of ten, they’d go out with components that you could have put on the passenger seat of Berlingo or some other city- or mini-van.
Because of how lucrative our business was on paper, the question of the size of the fleet, their capacities, the extra fuel and over-the-odds van insurance premiums we were paying not only didn’t get addressed but never even get posed.
When you’re making deliveries to line-side two and three times a day to facilitate a just-in-time system or the like, those savings can really start to stack up. The added fuel, wear and tear and the mileage – van insurance providers take your miles into account, too; the more miles your van travels, the higher the propensity of an accident (therefore the higher the risk) and accompanying van insurance quote.
So, when next you consider the purchase of your new fleet, ask yourself if your business model or direction has changed – you could make your business even more profitable, simply by downsizing your vans to suit your service.
